Battle Of The Warsaw Ghetto (NBC Special)
The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection
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In October 1943, NBC broadcast The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto starring Raymond Massey as narrator. The program was produced in cooperation with the American Jewish Committee. This recording is of the repeat broadcast of 1943-12-12 to mark the Feast of Hanukkah, the successful revolt of the Maccabees that led to the recapture of Jerusalem i n 164 BCE. The battle of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, where thousands were massacred by the Nazis, was compared to the resistance that the Maccabees made centuries before. Massey narrated the script written by Morton Wishengrad. At the time of the program, Wishengrad was a young scriptwriter, 29 years old. His career, cut short by his death in 1963 at age 49, included many scripts of Cavalcade of America and more than 2 00 scripts for the religious program The Eternal Light . His theatrical play, The Rope Dancers , was nominated for a Tony Award in 1958. He wrote many teleplays in the 1950s for well-known dramatic programs. Massey’s career was on the rise. He was an accomplished stage actor who was building a movie career. A Canadian, his performance as Abe Lincoln on Broadway won many accolades; he was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal in 1940’s Abe Lincoln in Illinois . The highly respected actor would later have many movie and television roles in the 1950s and 1960s. The music was by Morris Mamorsky, who led the music for more than 400 episodes of The Eternal Light , but also for such programs as Words at War, World’s Great Novels, and Arthur Hopkins Presents . David Putterman was the Cantor in the program. The director was Anton M. Leader, who was a director of Radio Reader’s Digest , Murder at Midnight , Words at War , and Suspense. * * * These recordings are part of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. Mr. Hehn (1931-2020) was a pioneering collector of radio recordings when the hobby emerged in the 1960s. Digitizing his collection of reel tapes and discs is the effort of a wide range of North American volunteers, and includes assistance of some international collectors. The groups supporting this effort with their funds, time, technology and skills are the Old Time Radio Researchers and a small group of transcription disc preservationists who refer to themselves as the "The Knights of the Turning Table."
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.